Class Notes: 2/12/20

Topic:
Nightmares - Origins in Film Gothic (Chap 1)
Horror Film - Genrification (Chap 1)
Viewed Cabinet of Dr. Caligari


Horror film - history of anxiety

Gothic: dark, mysterious, possibly supernatural, decay, death, gloomy castles/houses, past, monsters, madness, fear, double (doppelgänger) etc.
Architectural Term (Gothic architecture - i.e cathedrals) and historical (Goths (invading barbarians)

Latin monstrare/English monster - to show/reveal

Genre: A classification based on various criteria

First Gothic: Castle of Ontronto by Horace Walpole, 1764
English tradition that moved to the United States

Horror films based on myths/legends of past.
Early Hollywood filmmakers were often immigrants who examined old world superstitions and restored order at the end.

1930's Hollywood film code: monsters destroyed at end of film
Thickly accented villains (evil as foreigner)


1920's: horror of WWI
1930's: horror of foreigners
1940's: horror of psychological
1950s: horror of communism/space aliens/nuclear war
1960's: horror of American dream
1970's: horror of disintegration of family
1980's: horror of promiscuity/liberalism
1990's: horror of technology
2000's: horror of 9/11
2010's: horror of racism

Stephen King- Danse Macabre
Horror texts are cyclical and examine fears of society (symbolic/representational)
Horror texts help us cope with real horrors

Normal vs. Abnormal
Us vs. Them (the Other)
Victimization
Conflict
Forbidden/Taboo
Diseased States

First cinema image (1895 train pulling into station) inspired fear/horror

1920's film: Silent era, German Expressionism (mix of art forms examining fear/darkness in surreal/disjointed way - artistic/experimental)

Cabinet of Dr Caligari: Considered first "horror" film (influenced Nosferatu)
Reality vs. fantasy
Madness
Death
Mysterious
Woman under threat
Repression
Murder
Enforced conformity
Fears of WWI

Film could reach mass audiences and become cultural moments in the United States.